You probably read that headline and said, “WHAT TRAVELS? I want to travel!” It is so long since I posted that I thought I would show you my daily travels. I have been sharing them with my best friend who shares his bike ride shots with me. And another friend (funny they are both Canadians) takes a walk every morning and posts those photos to Instagram and Facebook where I get to comment on them. She has no idea that I am doing that I am walking every day as well because I don’t share my pics on either platform.

But today I decided I should share my travels. Six days a week (missed a few due to weather) I have taken a walk around Redmond. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I walk 6.5 miles and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 3.5 miles. That comes out to about 30 miles a week. I figure that by the end of this week, we will have been in lockdown since we got back from New Orleans in March I will have been walking for 20 weeks…which means I have walked almost 600 miles. Too bad I kept coming home. If I had just walked and kept on walking, I could have been in Redding, California, Butte, Montana, fifty miles beyond Prince George, BC or about one fifth of the way to Hawaii…but I would have to swim.

As I said, I have been sending my buddy Bob pics when I walk. One of the things Bob tells me when I send him pics is how beautiful Redmond is and believe me, I know. We are so lucky to live in a place where everything is walkable. And where nature is less than three blocks away. So here’s where I went today. Today is one of my short days. Just a less-than-an-hour 3.5 miles but I think it is a rather beautiful walk. Can’t wait to see what you think. Here’s the route. The numbers on it correspond to some of the places I will describe below.

As you can see, I start and end where the red and green dots are together. That’s our house. If you are wondering where I got the map, it comes from a wonderful app called Map My Run (but you can specify a walk—more about this app later). It keeps track of my walk via GPS and then lets me save it, upload it and keep track of all my walks online. It’s a free app so if you walk or run try it out. Here’s my first set of photos up through number 2 on the map.

The start of my walk looking out the garage door of our townhouse

Across the street looking down further into our complex

This is a great walkway that takes me out of the complex

This is at the end of that walkway. When I was president of the condo association we fought for more than 8 years to get this crosswalk

And now they have (in the last month) added flashers!

Across the street is one of the reasons I love living where we live. Bella Bottega shopping center

This includes a huge supermarket, an eight screen movie theater, a bunch of shops and some great restaurants including…

My favorite, Blu Sardinia.

And then right behind the super market, right where I used to work out. My health club was right there and they tore it down to build this monstrosity–300 apartments.

So if you read the captions on the photos, you know that I love living within walking distance of all of this. I can get to any of the places above in less than five minutes. In fact when I go to the supermarket across the street, it takes me longer to drive there than it does to walk. And excuse my caption rant about losing my health club to apartments. Since late 2014 more than three thousand new apartments have been built in the downtown Redmond core. Believe me, these apartments don’t rent for cheap. A one bedroom/1bath, 800 square foot apartment in the pictured building rents for a little over $2600 a month. It sits at the number 2 on the map.

After passing my former health club’s apartment replacement I turn onto this really nice walking path.

Which takes me to this crosswalk right next to our public library. We use it constantly, when it’s open.

This tree-lined pathway is next to the library

And leads to this open field on our Redmond Municipal Campus which includes the library, courthouse, police department, defunct and condemned Senior Center and the…

Redmond City Hall.

This part of the walk cuts through out municipal campus (again, about three blocks from our house). The big grassy area above is used all year for all kinds of festivals and celebrations. This is all between 2 and 3 on the map.

Caddy-corner from City Hall is this new construction. They are building…more apartments, what else?

I have now crossed the street and I am heading up next to still another brand-new apartment building.

This is a pathway that leads down to…

This biking and walking path. I have walked this in the past but it is way too crowded during Covid lockdown so I avoid it like the plague.

Cross the bridge over the Sammamish River. It’s actually called Sammamish Slough but river is so much better.

As soon as I cross the bridge, I head down these stairs to walk the dirt path on the far side of the river.

The scenes pictured above are just before I get to the number three on the map. I get to see the river on all of my walks and it is beyond photogenic in almost every season. I used to walk on the paved side of the river but had to stop once the pandemic hit because it is just too crowded. I should add that the paved path is part of the Burke-Gilman trail that you can take all the way from Sammamish (about five miles up river) to the Puget Sound on the other side of Seattle. That’s a total of more than 20 miles.

This is one of my favorite parts of my short walk.

It winds through some beautiful trees and I am usually all alone

The trail, even though dirt, is nice to walk on.

But lest you think I am in the middle of nowhere, I am walking behind a bunch of office buildings.

More forest

Working my way down the river, which is to my right.

Going under the 90th Street bridge. This bridge did not exist when we first moved here. It is about 15 years old and we are so glad they built it as it saves us so much time.

Under the bridge, I look across the river to the paved trail.

And then back into a forest for a short ways.

The scenes (above) are all between numbers 3 and 4 on the map. It’s all forested but close to business on the left. Check the captions for more info.

Emerging from the forest next to these city provided picnic tables I can see…

The river on my right.

These two guys ran right by me. They were the only people I saw on my side of the river.

Not to think we are way out in the country, this building is just to the left of the runners.

Looking back at the river.

More river shots.

About to enter some more foliage. It’s been a warm walk to get here.

As you can see from the pics, this part of the walk is open and I can see the river for most of this section. It is also out in the sun with very little shade which means on a hot day, I want to get through it pretty quickly. This is the section between numbers 4 and 5 on the map.

This is where I come to the Power Line Trail

Here is my “fork in the road.” If I take the right fork, I wind up staying along side the river, but I will turn left to take the Powerline Trail

This trails nicely tree lined and paved.

Hardly anyone is ever walking on it.

It runs down the side of a large church parking lot. Only day there is anyone here is Sunday and that’s my day off.

This is why they call it the Power Line Trail

Sunny in some places, shaded in others.

And you get to meet very friendly bunnies.

Back into the shade.

And I try to stay there on a day like this.

When the shade runs out, I move to the right into the parking lot…

And walk under these trees which line it.

This is the section between numbers 5 and 7. I took the bunny pic at #6. The church lot is great because it is seldom used. Also, it is not well know because everyone sticks to the river trail. It’s the perfect Covid walking trail. I should mention that I do NOT wear a mask when walking. I rely on social distancing and as you can see, I hardly ever pass anyone. I do carry a mask in my pocket and if I have someone coming towards me that I cannot avoid, I put it on and ask that they mask up as well. There are very few places on this walk that I can’t avoid others by at least eight feet.

I have not reached Willows Road, a fairly busy thoroughfare.

But what’s nice is that the city has built a really nice, paved trail on an old railroad right of way.

They even put up sculptures

It alternates between shade…

…and sun.

And here’s my obligatory flower shot since all my friends who walk or bike sometimes take flower shots.

See what I mean by shade…

…and sun. Later in the day it would have been too hot.

More shade and pretty soon…

A creek just off to the right.

All of the above show up between numbers 7 and 8 on the map. A really nice trail on the Burlington-Northern railway line called the Redmond Connector. Again, since most cyclists, runners and walkers would rather take the River trail, this one is usually empty. It suits me just fine. It is also part of one of my longer walks as well.

At this corner (Willows and 90th) I turn left to go home. I am at around 2.75 miles at this point.

This is a fairly busy street but it has beautiful shade trees.

I only have one other road I have to cross.

Ahead you can see the 90th street bridge that I walked under at the start of my walk.

Now I am on bridge looking down. I walked on this trail on my way out.

Looking down at the river.

Heading home from the middle of the bridge.

This is a drainage pond a little ways back from the river. It gets a little grungy sometimes but I often see heron here.

This section is between 8 and 9 on the map. At number 9, I am on the bridge looking down at the Sammamish River. Almost home at this point.

Coming off the bridge I can see the QFC super market ahead at the signal.

The other side of 160th is our condo complex…

…named Meadowview Village.

I head up the sidewalk…

Cross over the pedestrian walkway…

…up the hill…

to our home. It’s the three story unit on the right.

And finally, 9 to 10 and back home. It was a really nice walk except for being a little warm at the end. But I shouldn’t complain. I am finishing this on Friday (took this walk on Thursday) and it is drizzling and somewhat cold. I wore a jacket for the first half and I have been back for two hours and so far—no sun in sight. Next week should be interesting as we are supposed to reach ninety degrees on Wednesday. I will have to walk at 4:00 am to beat the heat. I don’t know how my friend Susan does it with all the humidity she has in Ontario.

I want to give a quick endorsement to the app I mentioned above. It’s called Map My Run and it is from the clothing company Under Armor. It is available for iOS or Android. Not only does it use GPS to show me where I have been, it gives me mile-by-mile updates of distance, time and pace (spoken out loud) and it has an Apple Watch app as well so I can always just glance at my watch to see all the info. It has a place in the app for you to take a photo to add to your daily walk. It also lets you save your walks/runs to the Map My Run website where you can see your entire walking history along with the maps and photos. You get a weekly update of how you did for the week with a lot of other great data. If you walk a lot like I do, download and let me know if you like it. BTW: You can also use this on a bike since it measures by GPS and not by steps.

That’s about it for my “travels.” Thanks for following along. Next week we are having a new roof put on our condo so we may just head out on Monday and not come back until it is done on Thursday so look for some possible travel tales next week. But wherever we go, I will be walking.

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress. — Barack Obama